Descripción del proyecto
Mayor precisión en la detección de rayos cósmicos
La misión «Dark Matter Particle Explorer» ha inaugurado una nueva era en la física de astropartículas gracias a la obtención de mediciones directas de espectros de rayos cósmicos que van más allá de un TeV (teraelectronvoltio). El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos PeVSPACE pretende lograr nuevas mejoras fundamentales en la precisión de las mediciones directas de rayos cósmicos a las más altas energías, en el rango de TeV-PeV (petaelectronvoltio). Su objetivo es ayudar a resolver el problema del origen de los rayos cósmicos y sus efectos en la composición del universo. Desarrollará técnicas de reconstrucción e identificación de pistas de rayos cósmicos en el rango de TeV-PeV utilizando inteligencia artificial y pondrá en marcha un programa de investigación para mejorar la precisión de los modelos hadrónicos de Monte Carlo. La mayor precisión lograda en las mediciones de rayos cósmicos abrirá oportunidades únicas para nuevos descubrimientos.
Objetivo
The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) mission has recently marked a new epoch in astroparticle physics, extending the direct measurements of cosmic ray spectra beyond a TeV with unprecedented energy resolution. With this project, based on my leadership position in DAMPE and its unique data, I propose to fundamentally improve the precision of direct cosmic ray measurements at the highest energies – in the TeV–PeV range, using for the first time a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence approach. The project will help to solve the century-long problem of cosmic-ray origin at such high energies and its effects on the Universe composition. It will study the cosmic-ray spectrum close to the region of a mysterious decline, so-called “knee”, and shed light on the nature of Dark Matter through the discovery of characteristic fine structures in cosmic-ray and gamma-ray spectra. To achieve this, based on my expertise I propose: i) to develop the TeV–PeV cosmic-ray track reconstruction and identification techniques, using a deep learning or similar artificial intelligence approach; ii) to set up a unique research programme to iteratively improve the precision of hadronic Monte-Carlo models in this rarely explored energy domain, based on the available DAMPE data and data from future experiments. The developed results will be applied to the processing of DAMPE data at the first stage, and will be then extended to the next generation High Energy Cosmic Radiation Detection (HERD) experiment. The research strategy is designed to reduce drastically the dominant uncertainties of the cosmic-ray measurements in space, related to the particle type/direction identification and modeling of hadronic interactions in the detector. As a result of the project, cosmic ray spectra will be directly measured in space in TeV–PeV energy range with qualitatively higher precision, opening up an unprecedented opportunities for new discoveries.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
1211 Geneve
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